Posted on 12/17/2014 11:08:44 AM PST by Bettyprob
(Reuters) - The United States will restore diplomatic relations it severed with Cuba more than 50 years ago, a major policy shift ending decades of hostile ties with the communist-ruled island, President Barack Obama said on Wednesday.
Announcing the end of what he called a "rigid" policy of isolation of Cuba that had been ineffective, Obama said the United States would move toward normal ties and would open an embassy in Cuba.
Obama discussed the changes with Cuban President Raul Castro on Tuesday in a nearly hour-long telephone call. Castro spoke in Cuba as Obama made his announcement on a policy shift made possible by the release of American Alan Gross, 65, who had been imprisoned in Cuba for five years.
Cuba is also releasing an intelligence agent who spied for the United States and was held for nearly 20 years, and the United States in return freed three Cuban intelligence agents held in the United States.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
What I don’t understand is WHY we get one person back, and our enemies always get 3, or 5....
Berghdahl wasn’t worth 5 guys, and I don’t know the one we are getting back now, but is he worth giving them 3 of Cuba’s bad guys back??
Somehow America is not getting much, but giving back a whole lot of bad guys.
“Cuba also has sugar.”
Yeah, so what? Current price at supermarket price is $1.49 for 4lb bag. Try building a flourishing market at that price point. LOL
And there’s a lot of cigars out there now. Just adding to the original list. No stocks in sugar.
FWIW, Cuba receives lots of foreign currency, since all inclusive vacations there are cheap. Canucks, Brits and many other Europeans vacation there, bringing their foreign currency with them. The US is about the only country that maintains an embargo against Cuba. Never been there myself, neither could I afford, nor desire to go there.
A Marxist leaning Pope blessed the Marxist American president embrace of Castro's genocide communist regime condemning the Cuban enslaved people to eternal damnation. On the deal Castro liberated an American illegally imprisoned in Cuba in exchange for the freedom of three Cuban spies serving prison terms in U.S. and the normalization of relations with a country that occupied for decades a top position in the list of the State Department ‘s terrorist countries.
The Cuban regime tried to obliterate New York and Washington with a nuclear attack during the October Missile Crisis of 1962. “In November 1962, the Castro brothers’ and Che Guevara’s agents had targeted Macy’s, Gimbels, Bloomingdales, and Manhattan’s Grand Central Station with a dozen incendiary devices and 500 kilos of TNT. The Holocaust was set for detonation the following week, on the day after Thanksgiving.” (Humberto Fontova)
Castro has been a strong ally of Islamic terrorism. Cuba continues to serve as a base for coordination and mutual support among transnational terrorist organizations. At Tehran University he stated to the thunderous applause of students and faculty, "The imperialist king will finally fall,” (AFP, May 10, 2001). Immediately afterward the Iranian Press Service proudly proclaimed that "Iran and Cuba reached the conclusion that together they can tear down the United States.” (IPS, May 10, 2001).
It is suicidal turning a blind eye to Castro, a deadly enemy at 90 miles south of Key West that does not hide his hatred for U.S.
To complete Obama’s betrayal of the American people, with the normalization of relations comes the opening to Cuba of the American and International bank credits that will sustain the Cuban regimen passing to the American taxpayers the same heavy burden that helped to bankrupt the Soviet Union.
When The FBI Tracked Terror-Suspects—Literally!
Humberto Fontova | May 10, 2013
http://townhall.com/columnists/humbertofontova/2013/05/10/when-the-fbi-tracked-terrorsuspectsliterally-n1592705
But with Comrade Obama's socialist and totalitarian sympathies, if something similar is said about Obama and Cuba it will have a totally different meaning.
Yes and we also have diplomatic ties with Cuba. They don’t call it an Embassy its a diplomatic mission or some such but my brother in law is with the State Dept and he had to fly down there about 5 years ago for a week or so. Its a large office in a building in downtown Havana. So this is just something that should have happened long ago. The GOP was afraid to buck the Cuban enclave in S Fla as they are a reliable conservative voting bloc.
Ideologically speaking, it is hard to distinguish Cuban communists from Democrats. As a matter of reality, the Cuban landowners that have fled Cuba are not likely to repossess their property and status in Cuba, and the Cuban communists are not likely to ever suffer justice for the atrocities they have committed against humanity. Sanctions and our isolating Cuba from the US hasn’t done anything to make matters better, or punish the despots. Despots have a way of flourishing at the expense of common people. Our Democrat elites are proof of this.
I look forward to the Cigar trade, but think when Americans start smoking Cuban cigars they will be surprised at how good some of the Central American cigars are by comparison. The entire cigar industry should benefit.
LOL...No doubt John Kerry will let them know he served in Vietnam...
Have you noticed that Zero is constantly doing things that defy reason as a US President. I believe he can not stand it if the media is not talking about him for doing something....he thinks this will be a good legacy.
I can’t even fathom that we keep exchanging 3 or 5 bad guys for these returning men...Gross, fine, but Bergdahl was not worth 5 major terrorists. That’s like me offering you a cookie, and wanting three or five steaks in return, off balance....not the best analogy but you get my point, it’s mind boggling.
So repressive is OK as long as we get oil and cheap electronics?
Oh, I bet they’ll get C135’s full of cash....
You are misinformed about Saudi Arabia
The answer to the cigar question is that they never will flow at a reasonable price to us. It seems that there are waiting lists with expensive slots that are all filled. Almost all Cuban cigars are already sold to buyers here if the embargo ever comes down. This means that the the only ones we could buy will not be too far off the current black market price, only legal.
How do you figure? Their Wahhabism is cause for a whole lot of bad things.
Now the Castros can get lots of foreign aid cash from the U.S. The three released spies can now be easily replaced in the US by three thousand.
Hordes of new illegal invaders can flood the U.S. alongside their brethren from other Latin dung heaps. Now there is a wonderful new spot full of ultra cheap labor to send American factories to.
Allahu Akbar! All praise the Sultan.
just announced : tourists returning from Cuba allowed up to $100 worth of Cubanos
so what? You over rate the fearsome wahabi’s and under rate what you don’t know about, mainly the business class. Osama left the country because he was essentially and outcast from his own extremely wealthy family and the country leadership as well. His radicalism was simply not tolerable. There is a large and prosperous majority that is not radicalized. They like their good business and prosperity
Saudi Arabia is an American ally.
The cigar situation is much more complex than you paint it.
The Cuban tobacco will be available for blending even if the existing Cuban brands are expensive.
Let American capitalists get that tobacco for processing and watch what happens next.
I think that the loose Cuban tobacco is also already spoken for. Supply isn’t what it used to be.
Turkey is a NATO ally, big deal. Saudis were behind 9/11 and are pro-ISIS and for the al-Qaeda "rebels" in Syria.
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